How One Lie Can Ruin Your Personal Brand

  • 1 min read

Last week, Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson resigned amid controversy that he had lied about his academic credentials on his resume. An activist Yahoo! investor exposed Thompson as having added a nonexistent computer science degree to his credentials.

Unfortunately, resume embellishment like this is not uncommon. A 2004 study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found 60 percent of HR professionals had found inaccuracies on resumes “often” or “sometimes.” And much more recently, a FindLaw.com survey reports eight percent of Americans admit to embellishing or exaggerating information on their resume.

Lying and your personal brand

Job candidates might not always lie through extreme measures like adding an extra college degree, but many embellish their resumes in other ways. Some enhance their responsibilities at their past job to make it sound better. Others may change dates to fill gaps in their employment history.

Lying on a resume is never a good idea, and is grounds for termination at most companies. Many human resources professionals verify resume information with the job candidates’ past employers, run background checks, or scour the applicant’s Twitter and Facebook pages to make sure nothing seems fishy. An SHRM survey found nearly half of HR professionals Google search their applicants, and one in five of those who conduct searches have disqualified candidates because of what they found.

But when resume fraud slips by and is exposed later, it’s damaging to your company, and perhaps more importantly, your personal brand. Lying about just one aspect of your credentials can negate all of your experience and affect your future job prospects. So what if you have lied on your resume? You have a few options:

  1. Update it. Fix the errors on your resume. Tell the HR professional you noticed a few errors and would like to give them an updated copy.
  2. Tell the truth. Come clean and tell the HR manager the truth about your embellishments. This will probably disqualify you from the job, but it’s better than being hired knowing you’ve lied and having someone find out later.

Remember, lying on a resume, cover letter, or in an interview is never a good idea. If you think your credentials could be stronger, go out and improve them!

Picture of Heather R. Huhman

Heather R. Huhman

Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder & president ​of Come Recommended, a career and workplace education and consulting firm specializing in young professionals. She is also the author of#ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), national entry-level careers columnist forExaminer.com and blogs about career advice at HeatherHuhman.com.

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

The signs of a hard childhood rarely look dramatic by adulthood, therapists who work with trauma survivors say; more often it is a habit of apologizing before speaking, flinching at a raised voice that was never aimed at them, or checking that everyone else is okay before letting themselves relax.

The signs of a hard childhood rarely look dramatic by adulthood, therapists who work with trauma survivors say; more often it is a habit of apologizing before speaking, flinching at a raised voice that was never aimed at them, or checking that everyone else is okay before letting themselves relax.

Global English Editing
A national survey found that the share of men reporting they have no close friends at all climbed from 3 percent in 1990 to 15 percent by 2021, with the steepest rise showing up right around the age most men leave the workforce

A national survey found that the share of men reporting they have no close friends at all climbed from 3 percent in 1990 to 15 percent by 2021, with the steepest rise showing up right around the age most men leave the workforce

Global English Editing
People who apologize before anyone’s said what’s wrong may be doing more than displaying extra manners — research on parentification has found that children who grow up feeling responsible for a parent’s emotional state can carry that habit of anticipating, managing, and taking responsibility for other people’s feelings into their adult relationships, long after the household that taught it is gone.

People who apologize before anyone’s said what’s wrong may be doing more than displaying extra manners — research on parentification has found that children who grow up feeling responsible for a parent’s emotional state can carry that habit of anticipating, managing, and taking responsibility for other people’s feelings into their adult relationships, long after the household that taught it is gone.

Global English Editing
People keeping a secret reported hiding it in conversation far less often than it simply came to mind on its own, and it was those uninvited moments that went with feeling worse

People keeping a secret reported hiding it in conversation far less often than it simply came to mind on its own, and it was those uninvited moments that went with feeling worse

The Vessel
Picture next week and notice which way it runs, left to right, or toward you, or away, because whichever answer you just got, there are people who grew up finding a completely different one every bit as obvious as yours

Picture next week and notice which way it runs, left to right, or toward you, or away, because whichever answer you just got, there are people who grew up finding a completely different one every bit as obvious as yours

The Vessel
There are things about a life that are worth keeping to yourself even with people you trust completely, not because there is anything shameful in them, but because privacy is one of the few forms of ownership nobody can take from you once you have given it away.

There are things about a life that are worth keeping to yourself even with people you trust completely, not because there is anything shameful in them, but because privacy is one of the few forms of ownership nobody can take from you once you have given it away.

Global English Editing
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore